HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo, Two spent bullets were found at a hotel in Hiroshima on Friday morning and the front glass door of the hotel was shattered, apparently having been hit by gunfire, police said.

The hotel is owned by the Japan Teachers Union and there were about 40 people, including teachers and elementary school pupils, staying there to attend the memorial service Friday to mark the 59th anniversary of the A-bombing of the city by the United States in 1945.

In June last year, two shots were fired at the office of the teachers union's Hiroshima Prefecture chapter in a building located next to the hotel in Higashi Ward.

A right-wing extremist group claimed responsibility and in December last year the police arrested five members of the group, including one suspected of doing the Hiroshima shooting.

Nobody was injured in Friday's incident.

The manager of the hotel said there was nothing unusual when the hotel closed its front door at around midnight Thursday, but an employee on night duty said he had heard a crashing sound at around 3 a.m. Friday.

A section meeting of an international conference hosted by the Japan Congress Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikin) and other organizations was held Thursday morning at the hotel, the police said.

2004-08-06 13:47:39JST